Vancouver break even financially

Organisers of the Vancouver Winter Olympics reported a break-even balanced budget of 1.884 billion dollars in their final financial report released yesterday.

The first financial details in more than a year on last February’s showcase of snow and ice sports in Western Canada showed 1.49 million Olympic tickets sold for 260.3 million dollars.

Games operations and services cost 723 million dollars with 452.4 million dollars going for technology, 288 million dollars for sport operations and 167.7 million dollars for marketing and communications in the costliest items.

Income figures included 730.2 million dollars from Canadian sponsorships, 173.6 million dollars from International Olympic Committee sponsorships and 479.7 million dollars from the IOC.

“The true measure of the 2010 Winter Games is not strictly financial, but a positive financial outcome is something we are very proud of,” organising committee chief executive officer John Furlong said.

“We have achieved it under some very challenging circumstances.

“Our rigour and discipline on financial management never wavered and became even sharper when the recession hit right after the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.”

Provincial and federal taxpayers helped the cause with more than 187 million dollars.